WILMINGTON  DURING  THE  BLOCKADE 
Johns 


..V:-1 


\  , 


«-Jfalow 


WILMINGTON  DURING  THE  BLOCKADE. 
By  John  Johns. 


Harper's 
Sept. 1866. 


Library  of 
The  University  of  North  Carolina 


COLLECTION  OF 

NORTH  CAROLINIANA 


ENDOWED  BY 

JOHN  SPRUNT  HILL 
of  the  Class  of    ~S9 


/* 


L^qio.ls-SLlvi 


WILMINGTON  DURING  THE  BLOCKADE. 


497 


^     WILMINGTON  DURING  THE 
BLOCKADE. 

BY  A  LATE  CONFEDERATE  OFFICER. 
— —-%  FTER  the  capital  of  the  Confederacy  there 
j\.  was  not  in  the  South  a  more  important 
place  than  the  little  town  of  Wilmington,  North 
Carolina,  about  twenty  miles  from  the  mouth  , 
of  the  Cape  Fear  River,  noted  in  peace  times 
for  its  exports  of  tar,  pitch,  turpentine,  and 
lumber.  The  banks  of  the  Cape  Fear  had  been 
settled  by  Sir  Walter  Raleigh's  emigrants  and 
Scotchmen,  and  to  this  day  you  find  the  old 
Highland  names,  and  see  strongly-marked  Scot- 
tish features  among  the  inhabitants.  The  peo- 
ple still  retain  many  of  the  traits  of  their  de- 
scent, and  are  shrewd,  canny,  money-making, 
and  not  to  be  beaten  at  driving  a  bargain  by  any 
Yankee  that  we  ever  saw.  They  are  hospitable, 
intelligent,  and  polished ;  many  old  families, 
who  for  years  have  lived  in  affluence  and  luxury, 
residing  there,  who  have  intermarried  with  each 
other  until  they  form  a  large  "  cousinhood,"  as 
they  call  it. 

Previous  to  the  war  Wilmington  was  very  gay 
and  social.  But  the  war  had  sadly  changed  the 
place,— m.any  of  the  old  families  moving  away 
into  the  interior,  and  those  who  remained,  cither 
from  altered  circumstances  or  the  loss  of  rela- 
tives' in  battle, giving  in  retiracy.  When  we 
first  knew  it,  Major-Geiier'al  W.  H.  C.  Whiting 
was  in  command.  He  was  an  old  army  officer, 
who  for  a  long  time  had  been  stationed  at  Smith- 
ville,  near  the  Old  Inlet  at  the  mouth' of  the 
river,  where  prior  to  the  war  there  had  been  a 
fort  and  a  garrison,  though  for  some  years  dis- 
used". Whiting  was  one  of  the  most  accomplish- 
ed officers  in  the  Southern  army.  He  was  a 
splendid  engineer,  and  having  been  engaged  in 
the  Coast  Survey  for  some  time  on  that  portion 
of  the  coast,  knew  the  country  thoroughly,  the 
capability  of  defense,  the  strong  and  the  weak 
points.  His  manners  wero'brusque,  but  he  had 
a  kind  and  generous  heart.  He  was  fond  of  the 
social  glass,  and  may  have  sometimes  gone  too 
far.  He  was  not  popular  with  many  of  the  citi- 
zens, as  he  was  arbitrary,  and  paid  little  atten- 
tion to  the  suggestions  of  civilians.  He  was 
a  very  handsome,  soldierly-looking  man,  and 

•^  though  rough  sometimes  in  his  manners,  he  was 
.  a  gentleman  at  heart,  incapable  of  any  thing 
"    mean  or  low,  and  of  undaunted  courage.    Peace 

J^    to  his  ashes ! 

On  Whiting's  staff  were  three  young  officers 

fr    of  great  promise :  his  brother-in-law,  Major  J. 


H.  Hill,  of  the  old  army,  now  an  active  express 
agent  at  Wilmington  ;  Major  Benjamin  Sloan, 
his  ordnance  officer,  now  teaching  school  some- 
where in  theniO-n.tttaitrs'oT South  Carolina;  and 
jjiuiITenant  j7  H.  Fairley,  a  young  Irishman, 
who  had  been  many  years  in  this  country,  and 
who  hailed  from  South  Carolina.  Fairley  was 
noted  in  the  army  as  a  daring  scout 
hard  rider,  withal  one  of  the  qtiietest^and  most 
modest  of  men.  He  is  now  drumming  for  a 
dry-good  house  in  New  York,  instead  of  inspect- 
ing the  outposts.  We  wonder  ifvhe  recollec 
the  night  when  the  writer  hereof  picked  up  a 
rattlesnake  in  his  blanket  at  Masonboro  Sound. 

Whiting  scarcely  ever  had  enough  troops  at 
his  command  to  make  up  a  respectable  Confed- 
erate Division.  In  '64  he  had  at  Wilmington 
Martin's  Brigade,  which  was  a  very  fine  and 
large  one,  composed  of  four  North  Carolina 
regiments,  remarkably  well  officered ;  two  or 
three  companies  of  heavy  artillery  in  the  town, 
doing  provost  and  guard  duty ;  at  Fort  Caswell, 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Old  Inlet  on  the  Western 
Bar,  a  battalion  of  heavy  artillery  and  a  light 
battery;  at  Smithville  a  similar  battalion;  at 
Baldhead,  opposite  Caswell,  an  island,  Col.  Hed- 
rick's  North  Carolina  regiment,  about  GOO  men 
effective ;  at  Fort  Fisher  Lamb's  North  Caro- 
lina regiment,  about  7U0  effective  men ;  a  com- 
pany at  Fort  Anderson  ;  a  company  of  the  7th  C. 
S.  cavalry  at  the  ferry  over  New  River,  GO  miles 
northeast  of  Wilmington,  on  the  Sound;  two 
companies  of  cavalry,  a  light  battery,  and  a  com- 
pany of  infantry  at  Kenansville,  40  miles  north 
of  Wilmington  and  7  miles  west  of  the  Wcldon 
Railroad.  These,  with  two  or  three  light  batter- 
ies scattered  along  the  Sound,  from  a  little  above 
Fort  Fisher  up  to  Toprail,  constituted  in  the 
spring  of  'G4  the  whole  Confederate  force  in  the 
Department  of  Cape  Fear. 

With  this  force,  and  Whiting's  skill  and  brav- 
ely, we  military  men  thought  we  could  hold 
Wilmington.  For  we  justly  regarded  the  Gen- 
eral as  one  of  the  few  eminently  fit  appoint- 
ments that  the  War  Department  had  made.  It 
certainly  made  some  curious  selections,  e.  </., 
the  placing  of  the  dashing,  impetuous  Van 
Dorn  in  command  of  a  Department — the  last 
place  in  the  world  he  was  suited  for — instead 
of  giving  him  a  cavalry  command  of  10,000 
men  and  placing  him  in  the  Trans-Mississippi 
Department.  Had  the  latter  been  done  the 
Federals  would  have  found  Van  Dorn  a  trouble- 
some customer  in  Missouri.  But  in  Whiting 
we  had  implicit  faith.  So,  though  there  were 
constant  rumors  of  expeditions  against  the  place 
we  scarcely  believed  they  were  coming,  so  long 
had  the  thing  been  delayed,  and,  in  fact,  an  at- 
tack was  wished  for  by  the  youthful  Hotspurs  to 
relieve  the  monotony  of  the  garrison  life  at 
Caswell,  Baldhead,  and  Fisher.  Wiser  people 
kne'w  better*.-  In  fact  we  had  lapsed  into  a  dream 
of  security,  or  thought,  at  least,  the  evil  day 
was  far  off.  We  ate,  drank,  and  were  merry, 
and  there  was  marrying  and  giving  in  marriage, 
as  in  the  days  before  the  flood. 


'<. 


49S 


HARPER'S  NEW  MONTHLY  MAGAZINE. 


It  seemed  singular  to  us  that  the  United 
States  should  so  long  neglect  to  close  the  only 
port  almost  of  the  Confederacy  into  which  ev- 
ery "  dark  of  the  moon"  there  ran  a  half  dozen 
or  so  swift  blockade  -  runners,  freighted  with 
cannon,  muskets,  and  every  munition  of  war — 
medicines,  cloth,  shoes,  bacon,  etc.  .Through 
that  port  were  brought  till  January  '65  all  the 
stores  and  material  needed  by  the  indefatigable 
Colonel  Gorgas,  the  Confederate  Chief  of  Ord- 
nance, the  most  efficient  bureau  officer  the 
Confederacy  had.  Through  it  came  those  fa- 
mous Whitworth  and  Armstrong  guns  sent  us 
by  our  English  friends.  Into  Wilmington  was 
brought  by  Mr.  Commissary-General  Northrup 
that  rotten,  putrid  bacon.called  "Nassau,"  be- 
cause it  had  spoiled  on  the  wharves  of  that  place 
before  reshipped  for  Wilmington.  It  was  coarse 
Western  bacon,  bought  by  Confederate  emis- 
saries at  the  North  ;  and  many  a  time  have  we 
imprecated  curses  both  loud  and  deep  on  poor 
old  Northrup's  devoted  head  as  we  worried  down 
a  piece  of  the  rancid  stuff.  We  must  say,  in 
all  candor,  that  he  was  impartial  in  his  distribu- 
tion of  it,  and  ordered  it  given  to  both  Confed- 
erate trooper  and  Federal  prisoner.  Northrup 
himself  ate  none  of  it ;  he  lived  on  rice — of 
which  he  would  buy  a  hogsheadTTt"ri  Tirne  from 
the  Commissariat.  We  became  so  vitiated  in  our 
taste  by  eating  it  that  at  last  we  came  to  prefer  it 
to  good  bacon,  and  liked  the. strong,  rancid  taste. 
We  could  not  afford  to  permit  our  stomachs__to 
cuVtip  any  shines,  and  forced  them  to  stand  any 
and  every  thing  by  breaking  them  into  it. 

But  the  cargoes  of  those  white  painted,  bird- 
like looking  steamers  that  floated  monthly  into 
Wilmington,  producing  such  excitement  and  joy 
among  its  population,  unfortunately  for  the 
Confederates  did  not  contain  Government  stores 
and  munitions  of  war  alone,  bad  as  the  bacon 
and  much  of  the  stuff  bought  abroad  by  worth- 
less Confederate  agents  were.  The  public 
freight  compared  with  the  private  was  small. 
By  them  were  brought  in  the  cloth  that  made 
the  uniforms  of  those  gayly-decked  clerks  that 
swarmed  the  streets  of  Richmond  with  military 
titles,  and  read  the  battle  bulletins  and  discussed 
the  war  news.  From  that  source  came  the 
braid,  buttons,  and  stars  for  that  host  of  "Ma- 
jors"— who  were  truly  fifth  wheels,  and  did  not 
even  have  the  labor  of  "following  the  Colonel 
around" — with  which  the  Confederacy  was  af- 
flicted. From  it  came  the  fine  English  bran- 
dies, choice  foreign  wines,  potted  meats,  and 
conserves,  jellies,  and  anchovy  paste,  etc.,  that 
filled  the  pantries  and  store-rooms  of  many  of 
the  officials  at  Richmond,  and  were  spread  out 
in  such  profusion  at  the  dinners  or  suppers  or 
dejeuners  given  by  the  "  court  circle"  (as  it  was 
called)  to  officials  when  the  "circle"  wanted 
any  of  their  pets  promoted  or  assigned  to  good 
positions.  From  it  came  the  loaf-sugar,  coffee, 
tea,  etc.,  that  staff-officers,  blockade-runners, 
and  their  relations  and  friends  luxuriated  in, 
while  the  ragged,  dirty  Confederate  soldier, 
musket  in  hand,  broiled  or  soaked  in  the  trenches 


before  Richmond  and  Peterburg,  watching  the 
foe  with  stout  heart  but  faint  stomach ;  starving 
on  a  handful  of  meal  and  a  pint  of  sorghum  mo- 
lasses, probably  varied  every  other  day  with  the 
third  or  quarter  of  a  pound  of  Sir.  Commissary- 
General  Northrup's  savory  "  Nassau  Bacon." 
Meanwhile  his  wife  and  little  ones  suffering  in 
their  far-off  Southern  home  for  the  necessaries 
of  life.  It  was  this  that  broke  the  spirit  of  the 
Southern  army,  and  caused  such  numerous  de- 
sertions from  General  Lee's  camp  during  the 
memorable  winter  of  'Gi  and  '65. 

In  fact  there  were  numbers  of  Confederate 
officers,  during  the  period  blockade -running 
came  under  our  view,  whose  sole  business  it 
seemed  to  be  to  lay  in  in  that  way  stocks  of 
groceries  and  dry-goods,  and  by  speculating  and 
shipping  cotton  from  Wilmington  and  Charles- 
ton to  lay  by  gold  in  case  of  an  evil  day.  Many 
of  them  came  out  of  the  war  rich  men,  and 
doubtless  with  comfortable  consciences,  for  who 
respects  or  likes  a  poor  man  ?  We  will  say, 
however,  that  we  never  heard  of  but  two  offi- 
cers of  high  rank  who  were  accused  of  this ; 
and  one  thing  was  very  certain,  that  Henry 
Whiting's  skirts  were  clear  of  such  transactions, 
and  that  he  left  his  family  badly  off.  It  was 
the  small  fry  generally  who  engaged  in  this  dis- 
creditable business,  to  the  neglect  of  their  soldier- 
ly avocations,  men  who  had  been  either  in  the 
retail  grocery  or  dry-goods  business  before  the 
war,  and  who  could  not  keep  their  hands  from 
such  pickings,  or  get  over  their  old  "store"  hab- 
its. It  was  seldom  you  caught  a  West  Pointer 
at  this  trading  business,  poor  as  most  of  them 
were,  though  it  must  be  confessed  that  two  or 
three  of  them  did  fall  from  grace  in  this  partic- 
ular. 

Talk  about  Yankees  worshiping  the  almighty 
dollar !  You  should  have  seen  the  adoration  paid 
the  Golden  Calf  at  Wilmington.Juring  the  days 
of  blockade-running.  Every  body  was  engaged 
in  it  save  the  private  soldiers  and  a  few  poor 
line  andstaff  officers,  who  were  not  within  the' 
"ring,"  and  possessed  no  influence  or  position 
there  by  which  they  could  grant  favors. 

When  a  steamer  came  in,  men,  women,  chil- 
dren TusTTe'c!  "down  to  the  wharves  fo  see  it,"  to 
buy,  beg,  or  steal  something.  Every  body  want- 
ed to  know  if  their  "ventures" — the  proceeds 
of  the  bales  of  cotton  or  boxes  of  tobacco  sent 
out — had  come  in.  No  people  were  more  ex- 
cited than  the  women,  expecting  gloves,  para- 
sols, hoop-skirts,  corsets,  flannels,  and  bonnets, 
silks  and  calicoes ;  for  these  things  became 
frightfully  scarce  and  dear  in  the  South  during 
the  last  year  of  the  war.  The  first  people  aboard 
of  course  were  the  agents — on  such  occasions 
very  big  men.  Then  swarmed  officials  and  of- 
ficers, "friends"  and  "bummers,"  hunting  after 
drinks  and  dinners,  and  willingto  accept  any 
compliment,  from  a  box  of  cigars  or  a  bottle  of 
brandy  down  to  a  bunch  of  bananas  or  a  pocket- 
ful of  oranges.  Happy  the  man  who  knew  well 
and  intimately  the  steward  of  a  blockade-runner, 
or  could  call  the  cook  his  friend,  and  get  a  part 


WILMINGTON  DURING  THE  BLOCKADE. 


499 


of  the  stealings  from  the  pantry  or  the  drippings 
from  the  kitchen! 

How  it  made  those  bluff,  coarse,  vulgar  En- 
glishmen stare,  who  came  in  as  pursers  or  offi- 
cers, to  see  well-dressed  gentlemen  thus  degrad- 
ing themselves  by  sponging  and  loafing  and  dis- 
gracing their  uniforms !  We  have  seen  many 
a  fellow,  bearing  a  commission,  for  hours  eying 
from  a  stand-point  on  the  wharf  a  bloekade- 
rnnner  as  a  cat  would  a  mouse,  and  then  just 
about  lunch -time  drop  aboard  to  enjoy  the 
Champagne  or  porter,  the  sardines  or  Parmesan 
and  English  cheese.  We  never  heard  them  ex- 
press it,  but  we  can  imagine  the  intense  disgust 
that  such  men  as  John  Wilkinson,  Robert  Car- 
ter, and  other  old  navy  officers,  who  occasion- 
ally commanded  such  ships,  must  have  felt  at 
this  method  some  of  their  Confederate  brethren 
had  of  living  at  other  people's  expense. 

As  for  ourselves,  we  never  had  the  pleasure 
of  this  sort  of  thing  but  twice.  Once  by  invita- 
tion of  our  friend  George  Baer  (alias  Captain 
Henry),  who  immortalized  himself  by  writing 
that  celebrated  protest  as  to  the  capture  of  the 
Greyhound,  and  by  his  escape  from  his  captors 
in  Boston.  Baer  invited  us  to  a  fashionable  10 
o'clock  breakfast  on  the  Index,  which  he  then 
commanded,  and  the  consequence  was  we  near- 
ly stuffed  ourselves  to  death,  and  came  near 
having  an  apoplectic  fit.  The  second  time  we 
went  by  invitation  on  board  the  Advance  to 
dinner,  and  were  treated  like  a  "snob,"  as  we 
deserved  to  be,  for  our  pains.  We  shall  never 
forget  the  cool  stare  of  the  steward  when  we 
had  the  audacity  to  ask  for  a  second  piece  of 
pie.  We  ate  it — humble  pie  indeed — and  that 
awful  man's  look,  which  we  shall  never  forget 
to  our  dying  day,  though  it  came  near  killing, 
cured  us  of  any  propensity  of  dining  and  wining 
on  board  blockade-runners.  We  loved  fresh 
meat  and  Champagne  dearly,  but  we  never 
sought  it  again  in  that  quarter. 

Wilmington  during  that  period  swarmed  with 
foreigners)  "Jews  'and'  Gentiles.  In  fact,  going 
down  the  main  street  or  along  the  river,  yon 
might  well  imagine  you  were  journeying  from 
Jerusalem  to  Jericho.  As  to  the  falling  among 
thieves  we  will  make  no  mention.  The  beggars 
at  the  gangways  of  the  newly-arrived  steamers 
were  as  thick  as  those  in  Egypt  crying  "buck- 
sheesh." 

At  every  turn  you  "  met  up,"  as  our  tar-heel 
friends  say,  with  young  Englishmen  dressed  like 
grooms  and  jockeys,  or  with  a  peculiar  coach- 
manlike look,  seeming,  in  a  foreign  land,  away 
from  their  mothers,  to  indulge  their  fancy  for 
the  outre  and  extravagant  in  dress  to  the  ut- 
most. These  youngsters  had  money,  made 
money,  lived  like  fighting-cocks,  and  astonish- 
ed the  natives  by  their  pranks,  and  the  way 
they  flung  the  Confederate  "stuff"  about.  Of 
course  they  were  deeply  interested  in  the  Con- 
federate cause,  and  at  the  same  time  wanted 
cotton.  The  Liverpool  house  of  Alexander 
Collie  and  Co.  had  quite  a  regiment  of  these 
youngsters  in  their  employ.     Fine-looking  fel- 


lows, with  turned-up  noses,  blue  eyes  wide  apart, 
and  their  fluffy,  straw-colored,  mutton-chop 
whiskers  floating  in  the  wind,  to  the  great  ad- 
miration of  their  chir  amie's,  the  handsome  quad- 
roon washer- women,  on  whose  mantle-pieces  and 
in  whose  albums  were  frequently  to  be  found 
photographs  strikingly  resembling  the  aforesaid 
young  foreigners.  They  occupied  a  large  flar- 
ing yellow  house,  like  a  military  hospital,  at 
the  upper  end  of  Market  Street,  and  which  be- 
longed to  a  Mr.  Wright.  There  these  young- 
sters kept  open  house  and  spent  their  pas'  and 
the  Company's  money,  while  it  lasted.  There 
they  fought  cocks  on  Sundays,  until  the  neigh- 
bors remonstrated  and  threatened  prosecution. 
A  stranger  passing  the  house  at  night,  and  see- 
ing it  illuminated  with  every  gas-jet  lit  (the 
expense,  no  doubt,  charged  to  the  ship),  and 
hearing  the  sound  of  music,  would  ask  if  a  ball 
was  going  on.  Oh  no!  it  was  only  these  young 
English  Sybarites  enjoying  the  luxury  of  a  band 

1  of  negro  minstrels  after  dinner.  They  enter- 
tained any  and  every  body,  from  Beauregard 
and  Whiting,  or  Lawley,  the  voluminous  corre- 
spondent of  the  London  Times,  down  to  such 

i  "  bummers''  as  Vizitelly  or  the  most  insuffera- 
ble sponge  or  snob  who  forced  his  society  upon 
them. 

But  alas !  there  came  a  day  when  these  Mas- 
ters Primrose,  with  brandy-flushed  faces,  faded 
away,  and  were  scattered  like  their  namesakes 
before  a  chilling  northeast  wind,  and  Wilming- 
ton knew  them  no  more.  We  doubt  not  that 
the  population  of  Wilmington,  both  white  and 
colored,  miss  and  mourn  them  sadly. 

Of  course  there  were  many  American  hous- 
es, and  American  agents  representing  English 
houses,  some  of  whom  would  fain  have  aped 
the  hospitality  of  these  young  Britishers  if  they 
could;  and  others  who  upon  no  account  would 
have  done  so.  There  were  Crenshaw  and  Broth- 
ers, Confederate  Government  Agents;  Eicklin 
and  Finney,  Agents  for  the  State  of  Virginia; 
Mitchell  and  Gervey,  of  Charleston,  Agents  of 
the  Bee  Line  ;  Salomons  and  Co.,  of  New  Or- 
leans ;  and  a  host  of  others  of  less  importance,- 
or  no  importance  at  all.  Of  course  they  all 
made  fortunes — some  at  the  expense  of  their 
country,  some  at  the  expense  of  their  compa- 
nies; which  latter,  in  consequence,  often  had 
small  dividends  to  make. 

The  tribe  of  Benjamin  was  very  well  repre- 
sented at  Wilmington,  as  you  may  imagine,  the 
unctuous  and  oleaginous  Confederate  Secretary 
of  State  having  well  provided  for  "  his  people." 
A  great  many  gentlemen  of  strongly  Jewish 
physiognomy  were  to  be  met  with  on  the  streets, 
in  very  delicate  health,  and  with  papers  in  their 
pockets  to  keep  them  out  of  the  army  from  the 
Secretary  of  State,  but  still  in  hot  pursuit  of  the 
"  monish."  When  the  conscript  officer  became 
very  zealous  and  pressing  they  fled  away  to 
Nassau  and  Bermuda.  We  recollect,  upon  one 
occasion,  when  a  very  distinguished  naval  offi- 
cer in  the  Confederate  service  was  going  to  run 
the  blockade,  three  men,  representing  themselves 


500 


HARPER'S  NEW  MONTHLY  MAGAZINE. 


as  being  intended  for  the  crew  of  a  Confederate 
cruiser  abroad,  presented  themselves  with  notes 
from  a  high  Government  official,  requesting 
that  passage  be  furnished  them  to  Nassau. 
Lieutenant  J told  them : 

"  Gentlemen,  if  I  take  you  under  these  cir- 
cumstances, you  can  not  go  as  passengers ;  you 
will  have  to  go  in  the  forecastle,  as  common 
sailors." 

"Very  well,"  said  they ;  "  any  way  will  do." 

So  they  went  out  with  the  nominal  purpose 
of  joining  the  crew  of  the  cruiser  that  was  being 
fitted  out  in  Europe.  When  the  vessel  got  to 
Nassau,  in  a  few  days  one  of  the  party  had  his 
sign  up  -as  a  practicing  physician  ;  the  other 
had  gone  into  business  in  a  store  ;  and  the  third 

came  to  Lieutenant  J ,  and  begged  him  to 

take  him  as  his  steward. 

"Why,"  said  the  officer,  "you  are  a  gentle- 
man by  birth  and  education  ;  you  are  not  fitted 
to  be  a  steward — a  waiter." 

"  Never  mind,"  replied  the  unhappy  impecu- 
nious individual;  "I  am  out  of  money,  and 
must  do  something." 

There  were  many  other  such  instances  of 
refugees  from  conscription.  In  Richmond  they 
used  to  get  through  the  lines  in  coffins.  At 
Wilmington  scarce  a  steamer  went  out  without 
some  "stowaways,"  whom  it  was  not  always 
possible  to  smoke  out,  or  without  some  weak- 
kneed  individual  who,  by  hook  or  crook,  in  some 
mysterious  way  managed  to  get  a  passport  and 
to  escape  the  conscript  officer. 

The  Confederate  Government  used  to  send 
some  queer  agents  abroad  at  the  expense  of  the 
people.  A  Mrs.  Grinnell  was  sent  out  by  the 
Surgeon-General — so  she  stated — to  get  band- 
ages, etc.,  which  nobody  else,  we  suppose,  but 
Mrs.  Grinnell  could  get.  She  was  an  English- 
woman, of  that  class  and  with  those  manners 
which  any  man,  if  he  has  traveled  much,  has 
often  seen.  She  gave  herself  out  as  a  daugh- 
ter of  an  English  baronet,  and  had  first  come  to 
New  York  several  years  prior  to  the  war.  Then 
there  was  Belle  Boyd,  who  represented  herself, 
we  believe,  as  an  agent  sent  out  by  Mr.  Benja- 
min. She  was  captured,  with  our  friend  George 
Baer,  on  the  Greyhound.  Another  was  a  Mrs. 
Baxley,  of  Baltimore.  She  represented  her- 
self, we  believe,  as  an  agent  of  old  Mr.  Mern- 
minger — that  compeer  of  Gallatin  and  Neckar — 
who,  by-the-way,  ever  since  the  surrender  has 
been  hiding  away  somewhere  up  in  the  mountain 
fastnesses  of  South  Carolina,  in  mortal  terror ; 
and  who,  whenever  he  hears  of  even  a  bureau 
agent  in  the  shape  of  a  chaplain  being  in  the 
neighborhood,  immediately  hies  himself  off  to 
his  retreat,  not  to  reappear  till  the  representa- 
tive of  the  United  States  has  departed  the  vi- 
cinity. The  fact  is,  the  United  States  ought  to 
send  old  Mr.  Memminger  a  free  pardon  and 
grant  him  a  pension.  He  did  about  as-much 
as  any  other  man  we  know  of  to  break  down  the 
Confederacy.  Mallory  should  be  taken  care  of 
for  life.  And  as  for  Benjamin,  the  United  States 
never  can  repay  the  debt  of  gratitude  it  owes 


him  for  having,  by  his  unfortunate  counsels, 
assisted  it  in  the  destruction  of  "  the  rebellion." 
They  should  send  a  public  ship  to  bring  Benja- 
min back  to  his  sorrowing  country,  which  so 
deeply  mourns  his  loss. 

^  Mr.  Mallory's  navy  was  always  the  laughing- 
stock of  the  army,  and  many  were  the  jeers 
that  the  Confederate  "mud-crushers"  let  off  at 
his  iron-clads,  formidable  things  as  they  were, 
had  he  managed  properly  the  Confederate  navy. 
Captain  Lynch  was  the  flag-officer  of  the  Cape 
Fear  squadron  when  we  first  went  there.  His 
fleet  consisted  of  the  iron-clad  ram  North  Caro- 
lina, which  drew  so  much  water  that  she  could 
never  get  over  the  bars  of  the  Cape  Eear  River 
Inlet — except,  possibly,  at  the  highest  spring- 
tide, and  then  the  chances  were  against  her  ever 
getting  back  again  ;  the  Raleigh,  another  iron- 
clad, not  completed  till  late  in  the  summer  of 
'64  ;  and  two  or  three  little  steam-tugs.  They 
all  came  to  grief.  The  North  Carolina,  the  bot- 
tom of  which  was  neither  sheathed  nor  prepared 
to  resist  the  worms,  was  pierced  by  them  till  her 
hull  was  like  a  honey-comb,  and  finally  was 
sunk  opposite  Smithvillc.  The  Raleigh,  after 
going  out  and  scaring  off  the  blockading  fleet  at 
the  New  Inlet,  was  beached  and  lost  on  a  bal- 
neal- Fort  Fisher  in  returning.  The  tugs  were 
burned  on  the  river  subsequent  to  the  evacuation 
of  the  town. 

Whiting  and  Lynch  from  some  cause  or  other 
never  were  on  good  terms,  jealous  of  each  other's 
authority,  we  suppose.  It  finally  came  near 
culminating  seriously.  There  had  been  an  or- 
der sent  by  Mr.  Mallory  to  Lynch,  in  pursuance 
of  an  act  of  the  Confederate  Congress,  not  to 
let  any  vessel  go  out  without  taking  out  a  cer- 
tain proportion  of  Government  cotton.  Lynch 
was  commander  of  the  naval  defenses  of  the 
Cape  Fear.  By  some  oversight  the  Adjutant- 
General's  office  at  Richmond  had  sent  no  such 
order  to  Whiting,  who  commanded  the  Depart- 
ment, and  consequently  the  port  and  its  regula- 
tions. One  of  Collie's  steamers  was  about  to 
go  out  without  complying  with  the  law.  Old 
Lynch  sent  a  half  company  of  marines  on  board 
of  her  and  took  possession.  This  Whiting  re- 
sented rather  haughtily  as  an  unwarrantable  in- 
terference with  his  authority  as  Commander  of 
the  port,  and  marching  in  a  battalion  of  the 
Seventeenth  North  Carolina  Regiment,  under 
Lieutenant-Colonel  John  C.  Lamb,  ejected  the 
marines,  and  took  possession  of  the  steamer  and 
hauled  her  up  stream  to  her  wharf.  Lynch  said 
he  did  not  care  how  far  Whiting  took  her  up 
the  river,  but  he  vowed  if  any  attempt  was  made 
to  take  her  to  sea  he  would  sink  her,  and  he 
shotted  his  guns.  Matters  looked  squally  and 
excitement  was  high.  A  collision  was  feared. 
They  were  both  summoned  to  Richmond  to  ex- 
plain, and  both  returned  apparently  satisfied. 
Lynch,  however,  was  shortly  afterward  relieved, 
and  Commodore  Pinckney  took  his  place. 

We  had  often  wondered  why  the  port  was  not 
more  effectually  closed.  To  tell  the  truth  it 
was  hardly  closed  at  all.     Many  of  the  block- 


WILMINGTON  DURING  THE  BLOCKADE. 


501 


ade-runuers  continued  their  career  till  the  fall 
of  Fisher.  An  experienced  captain  and  good 
engineer  invariably  brought  a  ship  safe  by  the 
blockading  squadron.  Wilkinson  and  Carter 
never  failed — good  sailors,  cooIT'cautious,  and 
resolufe~they  ran  in  and  out  without  difficulty 
many  times.  The  great  danger  was  from  the 
exterior  line  of  tile  blockaders  some  forty  or 
fifty  miles  out. 

But. owing. to  the, configuration  of  the-coast  it 
is  almost  impossible  \p  effect  a  close  blockade. 
The  .Cape  Fear  has  two  mouths,  the  Old  Inlet, 
at  the  entrance  of  which  Fort  Caswell  stands, 
and  the  New  Inlet,  nine  miles  up  the  river,  where 
Fisher  guards  the  entrance.  From  the  station 
off  the  Old  Inlet,  where  there  were  usually  from 
five  to  six  blockaders,  around  to  the  station  off 
the  New  Inlet,  a  vessel  would  have  to  make  an 
arc  of  some  fifty  miles,  owing  to  the  Frying  Pan 
Shoals  intervening,  while  from  Caswell  across 
to  Fisher  it  was  only  nine  miles.  The  plan  of 
the  blockade-runners  coming  in  was  to  strike 
the  coast  thirty  or  forty  miles  above  or  below  the 
Inlets,  and  then  run  along  (of  course  at  night) 
till  they  got  under  the  protection  of  the  forts. 
Sometimes  they  got  in  or  out  by  boldly  running 
through  the  blockading  fleet,  but  that  was  haz- 
ardous, for  if  discovered,  the  ocean  was  alive 
with  rockets  and  lights,  and  it  was  no  pleasant 
thing  to  have  shells  and  balls  whistling  over  you 
and  around  you.  The  chances  were,  then,  that 
if  you  were  not  caught,  you  had,  in  spite  of  your 
speed,  to  throw  a  good  many  bales  of  cotton 
overboard. 

The  wreck  of  these  blockade-runners  not  un- 
frequently  occurred  by  being  stranded  or  beach- 
ed, and  highly  diverting  skirmishes  would  oc- 
cur between  the  blockaders  and  the  garrisons 
of  the  forts  for  the  possession.  The  fleet,  how- 
ever, never  liked  the  Whitworth  guns  that  we 
had,  which  shot  almost  with  the  accuracy  of  a 
rifle  and  with  a  tremendous  range.  The  sol- 
diers generally  managed  to  wreck  the  stranded 
vessels  successfully,  though  oftentimes  with  great 
peril  and  hardship.  It  mattered  very  little  to 
the  owners  then  who  got  her,  as  they  did  not 
see  much  of  what  was  recovered — the  soldiers 
thinking  they  were  entitled  to  what  they  got  at 
the  risk  of  their  lives.  But  a  wreck  was  a  most 
demoralizing  affair — the  whole  garrison  general- 
ly got  drunk  and  staid  drunk  for  a  week  or  so 
afterward.  Brandy  and  fine  wines  flowed  like 
water ;  and  it  was  a  month  perhaps  before  mat- 
ters could  be  got  straight.  Many  accumulated 
snug  little  sums  from  the  misfortunes  of  the 
blockade -runners,  who  generally  denounced 
such  pillage  as  piracy;  but  it  could  not  be 
helped. 

We  recollect  the  wrecking  of  the  Ella  off 
Baldhead  in  December,  '64.  She  belonged  to 
the  Bee  Company  of  Charleston,  and  was  a 
splendid  new  steamer,  on  her  second  trip  in, 
with  a  large  and  valuable  cargo  almost  entirely 
owned  by  private  parties  and  speculators.'  She 
was  chased  ashore  by  the  blockading  fleet,  and 
immediately  abandoned  by  her  officers  and  crew, 


whom  nothing  would  induce  to  go  back  in  or- 
der to  save  her  cargo.  Yankee  shells  flying 
over,  and  through,  and  around  her  had  no 
charms  for  these  sons  of  Neptune.  Captain 
Badham,  however,  and  his  company,  the  Eden- 
ton  (N.  C.)  Battery,  with  Captain  Bahnson,  a 
fighting  Quaker  from  Salem,  N.  C,  boarded 
and  wrecked  her  under  the  fire  of  the  Federals 
— six  shells  passing  through  the  Ella  while  they 
were  removing  her  cargo.  The  consequence 
was  that  for  a  month  afterward  nearly  the 
whole  garrison  were  on  "a  tight,"  and  gro- 
ceries and  dry-goods  were  plentiful  in  that  vi- 
cinity. The  general  demoralization  produced 
by  "London  Dock"  and  "Hollands"  seemed 
even  to  have  affected  that  holy  man,  the  Chap- 
lain, who  said  some  very  queer  graces  at  the 
head-quarter's  mess-table. 

Seldom,  however,  was  there  any  loss  of  life 
attending  these  wrecks.  But  there  was  one 
notable  case  of  the  drowning  of  a  famous  wo- 
man, celebrated  for  her  beauty  and  powers  of 
fascination.  We  allude  to  the  death  of  Mrs. 
Greenhow,  so  well  known  for  many  years  in 
Washington  circles.  Before  she  even  crossed 
the  Confederate  lines  she  had  undoubtedly  ren- 
dered valuable  service  to  the  authorities  at  Rich- 
mond, and  was  in  consequence  imprisoned  by 
the  Federal  authorities  in  Washington.  After 
coming  to  Richmond  and  laboring  in  the  hos-  - 
pitals  there  for  some  time  she  sailed  for  Europe 
from  Wilmington,  and  it  was  on  her  return  trip 
that  she  was  drowned,  just  as  she  reached  the  J\ 
shores  of  the  South.  She  bad  lived  past  her 
beauty's  prime,  had  drank  deep  of  fashion  and 
folly's  stream  of  pleasure,  had  received  the  ad- 
miration and  adulation  of  hundreds  of  her  fel- 
low-mortals, and  had  reached  that  point  in  life 
when  those  things  no  longer  please  but  pall  on 
the  senses.  Her  time  had  come.  The  small 
boat  in  which  she  was  coming  from  the  vessel, 
which  was  beached  just  a  short  distance  above 
Fisher,  upset.  Mrs.  Greenhow,  after  sinking 
several  times,  was  brought  to  shore,  but  soon 
after  reaching  it  died.  It  was  said  that  the  gold 
she  had  sewed  up  and  concealed  about  her  per- 
son had  borne  her  down  and  was  the  cause  of 
her  death  ;  that  had  it  not  been  for  that,  weight 
she  would  have  been  saved.  Her  body  was 
brought  to  Wilmington  and  laid  out  in  the  Sail- 
ors' Church,  where  we  saw  her.  She  was  beau- 
tiful in  death.  After  her  funeral  her  wardrobe 
and  a  great  many  articles  that  she  had  brought 
over  for  sale,  and  which  had  been  rescued  from 
the  wreck,  were  sold  at  auction  in  Wilmington. 
It  was  very  splendid,  and  the  "venture"  she 
had  brought  in  for  sale  was  most  costly.  It 
was  said  that  an  English  countess  or  duchess 
had  an  interest  in  this  venture,  and  was  to  have 
shared  the  profits  of  the  speculation. 

But  the  storm  was  soon  to  rain  on  our  de- 
voted heads.  Those  white-painted  steamers, 
clipping  the  water  so  nimbly,  with  the  British 
and  Confederate  flags  flying,  with  their  bran- 
dies and  wines,  their  silks  and  calicoes,  their 
bananas  and  oranges,  and  gladdening  the  hearts 


502 


HARPER'S  NEW  MONTHLY  MAGAZINE. 


of  the  dwellers  on  the  bank  of  the  Cape  Fear, 
were  soon  to  disappear  from  its  waters,  and  the 
glory  of  Wilmington  to  depart. 
Sf  Day  after  day  we  had  watched  the  blockading 
fleet  with  the  naked  eye  and  a  glass,  and  often 
thought  what  a  lonely  time  those  fellows  must 
be  having,  and  longed  for  some  northeast  storm 
to  send  them  on  the  coast,  in  order  that  we 
might  have  the  pleasure  of  their  acquaintance. 
Cushing's,  by-the-way,  we  came  very  near  mak- 
ing, when  that  daring  officer  came  up  the  Cape 
Fear  in  June,  we  think  it  was,  'G4,  passing 
through  the  New  Inlet  by  Fort  Fisher  with  a 
boat's  crow  of  some  eighteen  or  twenty  sailors 
and  marines,  and,  landing  half-way  between 
the  town  and  the  fort,  concealed  his  boat  in  a 
creek,  and  laid  perdu  on  the  Wilmington  and 
Fisher  road,  waiting  for  Whiting  or  Lamb  to 
come  along.  A  mere  accident  enabled  us  to 
escape  him ;  and  though  of  no  importance  bar- 
self,  we  had  papers  with  us  at  the  time  that 
would  have  been  highly  interesting  to  the  United 
States  Government.  We  all  of  us  admired  his 
courage,  and  thought  it  deserved  success.  We 
well  remember  delivering  Cushing's  message 
(repeated  to  us  by  the  old  citizen  whom  he  caught 
and  released)  to  General  Whiting,  that  "he  had 
been  in  Wilmington,  and  would  have  him  or 
Colonel  Lamb  shortly." 

On  December  24,  'G4,  the  armada  command- 
ed by  Butler  and  Porter  appeared  off  the  coast. 
That  day  the  United  States  forces  under  Butler 
landed,  and  the  bombardment  of  Fisher  com- 
menced, and  such  a  feu  cTenfer  as  was  poured 
on  that  devoted  fort  was  never  seen.  Coming 
up  the  river  from  Smithville  on  a  steamer  that 
afternoon  Ave  witnessed  it,  and  such  a  roar  of 
artilleiy  we  never  heard.  Those  large  double- 
enders  seemed  to  stand  in  remarkably  close  to 
the  fort,  and  deliver  their  fire  with  great  accu- 
racy, knocking  up  the  sand  on  the  ramparts.  It 
seemed  a  continuous  hail  of  shot  and  shell,  many 
of  them  going  over  Fisher  and  dropping  in  the 
river.  But  Fisher  was  a  long  sand  fort,  stretch- 
ing in  an  obtuse  angle  from  the  river  bank 
around  to  the  mouth  of  the  New  Inlet,  that 
opened  into  the  ocean.  It  was  over  a  mile  from 
point  to  point.  Though  it  was  thus  heavily 
bombarded  for  two  days,  little  or  no  impression 
was  made  on  its  works  except  to  give  them  a 
ragged  appearance,  and  very  few  casualties  oc- 
curred, the  garrison  sticking  mostly  to  their 
bomb-proofs,  which  were  very  complete.  Whit- 
ing was  there  in  command  in  person,  having 
been  sent  there  by  Bragg,  of  which  latter  per- 
sonage presently. 

On  Saturday  night,  Christmas-eve,  Butler's 
powder-ship  was  exploded.  It  appears  to  have 
made  no  impression  on  the  fort  or  the  garrison, 
but  we  must  confess  those  300  tons  of  powder 
going  off  made  us,  though  twenty  miles  off,  feel 
very  weak  in  the  knees,  and  shook  our  nerves 
considerably,  for  we  did  not  know  what  it  was 
at  first,  nor  what  had  occurred.  About  2  .a.m. 
we  were  quietly  asleep  in  our  quarters  with  our 
wife  and  little  one  by  our  side,  when  this  ter- 


rible explosion  occurred.  It  must  have  been 
heard  with  greater  effect  in  Wilmington  than  at 
the  fort,  possibly  from  the  fact  that  the  wind 
was  setting  in  that  direction,  though  the  town 
was  twenty  miles  off.  There  came  in  the  dead 
of  night  that  awful  noise  ;  the  earth  seemed  to 
heave,  the  house  shook  violently,  as  if  the  walls 
were  going  to  fall  out  and  the  roof  coming  down 
on  us.  The  baby  slept  quietly  on  in  its  cradle ; 
our  better-half  clung  to  us,  and  hysterically  in- 
sisted that  we  should  say  the  Lord's  Prayer. 
Though  very  familiar  with  it  and  the  rest  of  the 
Bible,  to  save  our  lives  we  could  not  recollect  it. 
Butler's  powder-ship  had  completely  knocked 
all  of  our  memory  out  of  us.  We  do  not  be- 
lieve we  could  at  that  moment  have  told  our 
own  name,  so  completely  had  the  terrific  noise 
upset  us. 

The  next  day,  Christmas,  was  Sunday,  and 
all  day  Porter's  guns  were  thundering  away  at 
Fisher  and  shaking  the  windows  in  Wilmington, 
where  the  citizens  were  offering  up  their  prayers 
for  our  protection  from  the  enemy.  Communi- 
cation with  Fort  Fisher  by  land  or  telegraph  was 
then  cut  off — the  messages  had  been  sent  up  to 
that  time.  Toward  night  sensational  messages 
commenced  to  be  brought  up  from  below — one 
to  the  effect  that  the  enemy  were  on  the  para- 
pet at  Fisher  (in  truth  and  in  fact  they  never 
got  closer  than  the  stables,  at  least  two  or  three 
hundred  yarns  from  the  fort).  Bragg  sent  Mrs. 
Bragg  away  that  night  at  9  p.m.,  in  a  special 
train,  up  the  Weldon  Road,  and  an  officer  who 
saw  him  at  about  11  p.m.  reported  that  the  old  I 
gentleman  seemed  to  be  quite  unnerved,  and 
that  his  hand  was  very  tremulous.  Of  course 
there  was  a  great  exodus  of  civilians  from  the 
place  the  next  morning  early,  the  fact  that  Mrs. 
Bragg  had  gone  off  acting  as  a  key-note  of  alarm  ' 
to  others.  By  mid-day,  however,  Monday  these 
sensational  reports  and  stories  were  all  quieted 
by  the  authenticated  news  that  the  enemy  had  re- 
embarked  on  the  fleet,  and  that  the  attack  had 
ceased.  Then  the  fleet  sailed,  and  every  thing 
quieted  down.  The  general  impression  was  that 
there  would  not  be  another  attack  till  after  the 
spring  equinox,  in  May,  say,  or  the  June  fol- 
lowing. 

When  Whiting  returned  to  the  city  Bragg 
still  continued  in  command,  and  his  friends  and 
himself  evidently  took  the  credit  of  having  foiled 
Butler's  attempt.  Bragg  was  a  friend  and  fa- . 
vorite  of  Mr.  Davis.  He  had  sided  with  Gen-  \ 
eral  Taylor  in  Taylor's  quarrel  with  General 
Scott,  and  Mr.  Davis  was  a  man  who  never  for- 
got  his  friends  nor  forgave  his  enemies.  He 
seemed  determined  to  sustain  Bragg  at  all 
events,  though  the  feeling  throughout  the  whole 
army,  and  in  fact  the  South,  was  against  that 
General.  When  Wilmington  was  known  to  be 
threatened,  and  Bragg  was  sent  there,  the  Rich 
mond  Examiner  simply  remarked,  "Good-by, 
Wilmington  !"  and  the  prediction  was  verified. 

Whiting,  after  the  first  attack,  wrote  to  Bragg, 
advising  that  in  ease  of  another  attack,  which 
would  probably  be  made,  to  ptevent  surprise  he 


If 


would  advise  that  Hagood's  South  Carolina  bri- 
gade, numbering  over  2000  effective  men,  be 
thrown  into  Fort  Fisher,  the  garrison  of  which 
consisted  of  one  raw,  inexperienced  regiment 
that  had  never  smelled  powder  except  in  the 
first  attack,  and  which  did  not  number  even 
over  700  effective  men.  Hagood's  troops  were 
veterans,  and  had  been  in  many  a  battle.,  He 
also  advised  that  the  three  other  brigades  of 
Hoke's  division  be  placed  along  about  the  spot 
where  the  Federals  had  first  landed,  and  be  in- 
trenched so  as  to  prevent  a  landing  above  the 
fort.  Wise  precautions  if  they  had  been  adopted. 
Bragg  indorsed  on  the  letter  of  advice  from 
Whiting  that  he  saw  no  necessity  in  carrying 
out  those  suggestions.  It  was  the  failure  to 
carry  out  those  suggestions  that  lost  Wilming- 
ton. Had  they  been  followed  Wilmington  would 
not  have  fallen  when  it  did,  nor  Fisher  have 
been  taken.  Instead,  Bragg  brought  Hoke's  di- 
vision up  about  a  half  mile  back  of  Wilmington, 
over  twenty  miles  from  the  fort,  and  had  a  grand 
review  there,  in  which  he  paraded  himself  in  a 
new  suit  of  uniform  presented  to  him  by  his  ad- 
mirers in  Wilmington. 

Whiting's  prediction  about  a  surprise  was 
shortly  to  be  verified.  Thursday  night,  the  10(h 
of  January,  'Go,  the  fleet  again  appeared  oft" 
Fisher,  this  time  through  Bragg's  imbecility,  to 
do  its  work  effectually,  and  Friday  morning  the 
citizens  of  AVilmington  were  aroused  by  the 
booming  of  Porter's  cannon  a  second  time  open- 
ing on  Fisher.  When  the  news  came  up  at  mid- 
night that  the  fleet  had  again  appeared,  the  band 
of  Hoke's  division  were  in  town  serenading,  the 
officers  were  visiting,  and  the  men  scattered 
about — Bragg  no  doubt  asleep  in  fancied  se- 
curity. 

Of  the  capture  of  Fort  Fisher,  and  the  subse- 
quent inevitable  loss  of  Wilmington,  I  shall  not 
speak.  These  events  have  passed  into  history. 
My  purpose  has  been  simply  to  portray  the  as- 
pect of  Wilmington  when  blockaded. 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  N.C.  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


00032743158 

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FOR  USE  ONLY  IN 

THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  COLLECTION 


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